Decorative bow making has long been recognized as an art, and substantial skill is generally required to manually tie well proportioned decorative bows. Of course, automation of the bow making industry has given rise to complex machinery for producing decorative bows, but such machinery is expensive and takes originality, creativity and, indeed, enjoyment, out of the bow making process. Attempts have been made to devise bow making devices that are inexpensive, but they too tend to limit the bow maker's creativity by dictating the resulting bow configuration. Examples of such devices are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issue Date ______________________________________ 696,361 E. S. Chase Mar 25, 1902 1,010,155 W. E. Lange Nov 28, 1911 1,598,310 T. A. Quinlan Aug 31, 1926 2,077,370 R. K. Reynolds Apr 13, 1937 2,105,436 G. Flatto Jan 11, 1938 2,542,222 A. F. Welch Feb 20, 1951 2,666,249 R. R. Ruiz, et al. Jan 19, 1954 2,763,080 A. F. Welch Sep 18, 1956 3,223,440 W. Rosenzweig Dec 14, 1965 3,428,227 J. W. Cavoli Feb 18, 1969 3,501,070 W. M. Shattuck Mar 17, 1970 3,816,888 J. B. Rather, Jr. Jun 18, 1974 4,454,968 J. J. St Lawrence Jun 19, 1984 4,629,100 B. Owens Dec 16, 1986 ______________________________________
Other devices have been produced for measuring filaments for subsequent use, such as in tassels and pompoms. Typical of the art are those devices disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issue Date ______________________________________ 3,377,674 R. F. Brassaw, et al. Apr 16, 1968 3,854,179 J. Montoya Dec 17, 1974 4,337,578 E. L. Seals Jul 6, 1982 ______________________________________
Typical bows are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issue Date ______________________________________ 5,100,706 L. Zaweski Mar 31, 1992 5,215,791 E. A. Davignon Jun 1, 1993 ______________________________________
Of all of the prior art references cited, none teaches a device for fabricating a decorative bow wherein the device serves to retain the gathered portion of the bow such that the loops of the bow may be independently measured and freely maintained. Further, none of the prior art devices provides a means for independently retaining a plurality of bows.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bow making apparatus for receiving and maintaining the disposition of bow fabricating material during the making of a decorative bow.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a bow making apparatus which assists in the tying of a decorative bow, but does not stifle originality or creativity in the bow making operation.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a bow making apparatus which is simple to use and inexpensive.